326 hagiography
Polyeuktos, built in the previous decade (524–527). They
created a domed basilica on a rectangle of 230 by 250 feet,
resting on four arches and supported by four pendentives
in the corners of the arches, 55 meters high. This first
dome was too low and shallow and collapsed in 558. By
562 Isidore the Younger had replaced it with a steeper
ribbed dome, about 100 feet in diameter. Despite partial
collapses in 989 and 1346 it has survived to the present
day. Viewed from inside the church, the dome, about
840 square meters or 2,700 square feet, seems to hover.
It leads one to view a space beyond the dome and into
galleries, outer bays, half-domes, and an apse. Justinian
himself, when viewing the completed church, was said to
have boasted that he had outdone King Solomon.
See also ART AND ARCHITECTURE,BYZANTINE;PRO-
COPIUS OFCAESAREA.
Further reading:Cyril Mango, Hagia Sophia: A Vision
for Empires(Istanbul: Ertug and Kocabiyik, 1997); R. J.
Mainstone, Hagia Sophia: Architecture Structure, and
Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church(New York: Thames
and Hudson, 1988); Robert Mark and Ahmet S. Çakmak,
eds. Hagia Sophia from the Age of Justinian to the Present
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
hagiography Hagiography is the story of the lives of
the saints and how their practices and ideas might be
understood and taught. Under the name of hagiography
are included all the texts that recount the lives and
MIRACLESof the saints. They were intended to exalt the
memory and power of a saint, sometimes as a role model.
The most widespread forms were biographies supple-
mented by collections of miracles and accounts of devo-
tion. These texts were in prose or in verse, in LATINor in
the VERNACULAR.EARLY CHRISTIAN
In early Christianity, hagiography was devotional. The
original narratives were enriched with summaries of the
lives of the martyrs and confessors, combined with
descriptions of the circumstances of their death. In these
early stories authors included colorful details about the
cruelty of magistrates and executioners, the harshness of
interrogations and punishments, and the resistance of
the saints. The reactions and behavior of these saints
were soon reduced to stereotypes, conventional atti-
tudes, and commonplace circumstances. Many of the
rhetorical and supposed details of lives became literary
or pious conventions.MEDIEVAL
Hagiographical texts developed significantly between the
12th and 14th centuries, in terms of a changing pastoral
conception of sanctity as well as their objectives and pub-
licity. The saints remained heroes but explicitly became
behavioral role models for monks and clerics and also the
LAITY. Under the influence of the CISTERCIANSand the
MENDICANT ORDERS in the 13th century, the pastoral
aspect and behavioral possibilities of hagiography were
emphasized. Preachers aimed to present to the faithful,
through lives of the saints, almost practical models of
saintly behavior and orthodox belief. The GOLDENLEGEND
was initially compiled for the use of preachers, but also
inspired artists and influenced the didactic iconographical
representation of saints in the later Middle Ages. During
the 13th and early 14th centuries, more sophisticated
mystical biographies reconstituted the inner lives of saints
from manifestations of their personal devotion, VISIONS,
mystical revelations, and prophetic statements.
See also individual saints;JAMES OFVITRY;PALAMAS,
GREGORY.
Further reading:Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints:
Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1981); Peter Brown, Society
and the Holy in Late Antiquity(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1982); Paul Fouracre and Richard A.
Gerberding, eds., Late Merovingian France: History and
Hagiography, 640–720(Manchester: Manchester Univer-
sity Press, 1996); Thomas F. Head, ed., Medieval Hagiog-
raphy: An Anthology(New York: Routledge, 2001); André
Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages,trans. JeanInterior of Hagia Sophia, including a view of the new Imperial
Gallery, with the columns of Ephesus in the foreground
(Courtesy Library of Congress)